Snapchat: The Trend That Won’t Die Fast Enough

First off, teenagers have never been the most mature, attentive, or responsible humans – ever. This has been proven time and time again. The technology of this decade has now provided a new outlet for this generation’s irresponsibility: Snapchat.

Snapchat is a simple and dangerous concept, one that should go the way of Myspace and AOL Instant Messenger.

The concept is so simple that most pigeons could probably understand it, which explains why it appeals to people with the same IQ as said birds. In a nutshell, it’s another mobile app that allows you to communicate with your idiot friends and send pictures. The catch? The pictures disappear after a few seconds, lost in cyberspace, never to be seen again.

Please, don’t give me that crap about how “you can take screenshots” or “they’re actually saved somewhere that can be accessed by the app developers,” because while that’s probably true, that’s not the point I’m trying to make. Whether the “snaps” are permanent or not, the idea is enabling teenagers to think that they can do stupid things that won’t bite them in the butt later on in life. The mindset is actually pretty dangerous. We live in a time where things like cyber-bullying and sexting are real problems. While the rest of the world is trying to discourage these issues, Snapchat seems to only make them easier to get away with. Way to go, society.

Even those who claim that they don’t use the app for those reasons are still pretty freaking annoying. A few years ago, walking into a high school classroom and seeing kids taking pictures of each other from across the room with their plethora of mobile iDevices (iPhones, iPods, iPads) would be pretty unusual. Especially once you hear them giggling amongst themselves like a bunch of eleven year old boys in a sex ed class. Unfortunately, I see this happen way more than I’d like to admit, and it’s more than annoying, it’s distracting.

I hear a lot of lame excuses for this behavior too. “It’s not hurting you, mind your own business” and “Don’t worry, I’m not taking a picture of you” are just a couple. Stop making excuses. Just stop. It doesn’t matter, It’s a big distraction to everyone in the room and you don’t need to be taking pointless selfies or pictures of your unsuspecting classmates or teachers in school. It’s especially inappropriate to take pictures of other people and send them to people without their approval.

Again, Snapchat is an outlet for stupid kids to do stupider things and think they can get away with it. It’s also a distraction to students in classrooms that are supposed to be there to learn. But above all, it’s completely pointless. You have text messaging, Facebook, Twitter, and all these other options for social/messaging sites to waste your lives on, Snapchat is unnecessary, and I really hope it ends up in the internet fad graveyard right next to Myspace and AOL Instant Messenger, sooner rather than later. I also hope all your Snapchat pictures are kept somewhere and get exposed to the world someday where they can’t be taken down and you’re promised unemployment for life. No apologies, no regrets, right? Good luck.